Data & Analytics

Regional department store retailer Belk Inc. is using social media to make the holidays a little more fun and rewarding for its shoppers.

North Carolina-based Belk, which operates about 300 stores, has teamed up with digital marketing solutions provider HelloWorld for the return of the Santa Baby sweepstakes, now in its second year. In an effort to increase mobile opt-ins and ultimately boost brand awareness and consumer engagement, Belk and HelloWorld are allowing customers to create personalized e-cards, gifs, and TV spots.

When it comes to mobile engagement, retailers are wise to think of how mobile fits into the broader end-to-end shopping experience.

“That could mean location-based marketing with smartphone apps as well as reaching mobile customers with your email marketing program,” said Dan Leberman, VP/general manager, North America small and medium business, PayPal, during a recent interview with Chain Store Age. “You can see all the way through the shopping experience with a mobile-first e-commerce platform.”

Consumers who live active lifestyles often document their adventures on Instagram.

Poler Outdoor Stuff, a Portland, Oregon-based specialty outdoor retailer that operates an e-commerce site, as well as a flagship store, has been using Instagram for online promotions since launching four years ago. More recently, Poler has also been leveraging the promotional power of Instagram in its store.

Walmart is launching a new initiative with InComm and Pursuant Health that allows health plans to promote health risk assessments at kiosks in Walmart stores.

InComm, a leading prepaid product and transaction services company, and Pursuant Health (formerly SoloHealth) announced the partnership at the 2015 Money 2020 Conference in Las Vegas.

Ikea plans to install a solar energy system atop its Las Vegas store, opening summer 2016.

Panel installation will begin this winter, with completion expected in spring for what Ikea says will be the largest single-use rooftop solar array by a retailer in the state of Nevada. The 351,000-sq.-ft. future Ikea Las Vegas, and 1,300 parking spaces, currently is under construction.

Two weeks after publicly stating it had lost $56 million processing payments for Starbucks, Square no longer has to worry about future losses.

Starbucks has selected Chase Commerce Solutions, the global payment processing and merchant acquiring division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., to transition processing of all non-mobile payments and U.S. retail card payment transactions in company-operated stores. Chase will also partner with Starbucks on the rollout of chip-enabled payment terminals.

Purchases made via Facebook advertisements are more frequently occurring via mobile device.

According to new data released by the Facebook IQ marketing insights division, three in 10 purchase conversions from Facebook ads between January and May 2015 took place on a mobile device (24% on a phone, 6% on a tablet). During that same period, the frequency of mobile purchases increased 35%, according to Facebook IQ’s latest internal analysis.

Coach says increased demand for its merchandise and fewer discounts led the luxury goods maker and retailer to report increased profit in the first quarter despite a steep 9.5% drop in same-store sales.

The company said that for the first quarter ended Sept. 26, earnings were 41 cents a share (analysts expected 40 cents). Net income fell 19% to $96.4 million. Sales dropped 0.8% to $1.03 billion in the quarter, missing analysts’ $1.04 billion projection.